Fun Fast Facts:
Updated: 9 Jun 2014 (AIDS and Advocacy)
- Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70% of all people living with HIV/AIDS and 71% of all deaths worldwide from HIV/AIDS.
- The United Nations has released a children’s book called ‘The Bravest Boy I Know’ about a boy living with HIV and portrays him as a happy-go-lucky child like every other child.
- Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) researched and found King Muwanga II (1868-1903) was queer.
- In 1606, the Jesuit missionaries found ‘Chibudai’ – men who dressed like men.
- Pre-dating the colonisation of Africa, in Cameroon, homosexual intercourse was considered medicine for wealth.
AIDS and Advocacy
Broadcast: 9 Jun 2014
W3JOY interviewed: Jed Horner of Australian Human Rights Centre at the University of New South Wales
“I was born in the early years of HIV in South Africa [when] a couple of hundred of people died because of a failure of the government to provide access to anti-retroviral medication. That was in the media growing up, it was very visceral.”
“I think there’s different social pressures, and that has different responses to HIV at a legislative and policy level. So you’ve got massive differences in how countries view the disease and their response to it. South Africa lagged behind because of their HIV denialism.”
“Political willingness is a key ingredient.”
“There’s significant barriers when you walk through the door [to health clinics]. People may not feel comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation it has a very real impact in discouraging people from getting tested.”
“Often ironically that rhetoric is being driven by people from the (United) States – religious preachers from the far right. That is very un-African. Homophobia is very un-African. Bi-phobia is very Un-African and so is transphobia.””